Posted by Terry Sullivan in Alt Ship Charter Proposal

Posted by Dave Eads in Alt Ship Charter Proposal

Posted by Sharon Miller in Alt Ship Charter Proposal
Posted by… suppressed (8) by the Post Ghost! 👻
We currently have no classic TOS ships in the main fleet. I have strongly believed for quite a while that this is something we should address. I think it’s an important issue because this is potentially a huge part of Trek that is a favorite of many fans of the show. We could be missing out of members who would like to play in such an Rp environment. It is my belief that such a ship would be an excellent addition to STF. We have two current ships that operate in similar areas, but while each of those has its own unique characteristics, neither fills the role of which I speak. The Merrimack inhabits the Era of the motion pictures and is much later on in the original time line. (I consider this to be a different area of the universe.). Likewise, the Chernov is an Abramsverse ship, and therefore is in a different time line. These are wonderful ships to have, but neither of them fills the niche I’m aiming for.

As a solution to this, I propose that we add a classic TOS Era Alt Ship. I already have a few people interested in playing roles should this go forward, and we have drafted a charter for the ship.

I realize that membership concerns at this time might make this seem like an idea to be tabled for later, but I feel strongly that a new ship would benefit the club by providing an open door to a very significant area of Trek that we have missed the opportunity to enjoy thus far. In fact, such a ship might even draw new members in the future.

Thank you for your consideration and I welcome your thoughts on this proposal.

• Dave Eads

Personally I think it would be great to get even more variety into the main fleets so I’m all in favour of this.

• Sharon

Me too. I think this is a great idea long overdue. Thank you Dave for bringing this up.

Calé

I like this, but I see one main issue: we don’t know if it’s viable. While I like TOS, I only watched the series once in it’s entirety and periodically watching one episode or another to get ideas/learn more about a particular topic. I don’t know enough, myself, to say I could play anything more than a JO. And for many of the younger generation (who I’ve spoken to outside of the club mostly) 95% of them don’t like or haven’t seen TOS. I’m all for this idea, if it is given a period of, say, 6 months (example) to get viable and a full complement of DHs at least.

I want to stress it again: I’m not shooting down the idea. But this is reaching out mostly to the older crowd, both older members of the club, and older Trek fans. Some TOS episodes are great (The Naked Time is one of my faves) but for people coming from TNG onwards, even from Abramsverse Trek, it’s really weird looking due to the time it aired, and feels very primitive compared. The TOS movies get away with it, as they’re more modern-looking (compared to TNG onwards) than the series.

Katy

Thanks guys!

I appreciate the votes of confidence!

Katy, to answer your question, it’s traditional for the Charter of an Alt Ship to specify a review of the ship at a period of 90 days to make sure it’s functioning as planned. As for the other part of your post, I view the issue like this: Not everyone has to like TOS, but it should be available for those who wish to play in that style.

-Dave Eads

I’m not generally against the idea (with a review period), provided we know we can sufficiently staff the ship and have a CO who can make the long-term commitment to starting and running a new alt-RPG ship (which is often where the alt-RPGs have hiccups).

Daniel

Ok, so this is the first time I’ve ever weighed in on something in command, so feel free to ignore me if you want, however, I feel that this is a worthwhile issue to discuss. Having only started watching Star Trek in the past five or so years, I feel that I am well placed to give a response from a new viewer and new player point of view. First off, while I understand that a lot of newer Star Trek fans will never have seen TOS, much like new fans of Doctor Who from circa 2005 will never have seen an episode of the original run, that is not the case for all of them. Myself being a prime example. Indeed, I am also a circa 2005 Whovian, but have watched a large number of classic serials.

While I will admit that TOS has its flaws as a TV series, it is perhaps the most unique Star Trek series. It has a completely different feel to it than the others and even to its own movies. And while I understand that the feel of the TOS era is not everyone’s cup of raktajino, there are a lot of people out there that do like it. In fact, I was actually quite shocked to discover that STF doesn’t already have a TOS era ship; given that we’re supposed to be the largest and longest-running Trek RPG. Regardless, it is not as if we are shooting a fan-film and having to choose which era to set it in, based on the market for it. STF is a text based RPG, which means that we simply read what people write and conjure an image in our minds. Just because some people don’t like the look or feel of TOS, doesn’t mean they can’t join in, have fun and create their own images of what things look like. For example, I hate the uniforms from the latter half of DS9 and even though that is what the bulk of our characters conically would be wearing, I imagine them with the earlier DS9 uniforms or even the mid-TNG one’s; mood dependant.

To sum up, as I’m rambling now, so what if some people don’t like TOS? A lot of people don’t like Abrams-verse or ENT, but we have ships for those eras. Shouldn’t we be trying to offer as many different eras and options for people as possible? An inclusive rather than exclusive culture? Yes, if we try it for 90 days and there is absolutely no interest, then fair enough. But what’s the harm in giving it a shot? It might just work.

I.N. Foggarty

My point to the “newer people not liking TOS” is that the ship would be almost entirely–or maybe exclusively–long time members, with some newer ones, such as yourself, sprinkled in. I can also foresee high turnaround especially in the JO area, as TOS was also technologically limited (again, compared to the more well-known TNG-onwards) so from my experience I have running a TOS-era ship outside the club, you’ll have a lot of players who join, having limited TOS knowledge, and then getting mad they can’t do XYZ that’s possible on a newer-era ship, and leave. Is that the right attitude to have? Not neccesarily, but people do, because of misunderstandings/lack of knowledge.

If this does go through (again, I like the idea) I’d recommend having resources linked in the MOTD, as like I said, I personally have limited TOS knowledge, and I’m sure there’s many more who also do.

Capybara

Fair points made, Katy. I guess I’d personally counter them by saying:

1. On the tech not being as ‘advanced’ as a lot of players would be used to, we already have the Bonnie that plays in the ST:Enterprise era and that tech is even less advanced than TOS. It’s been years since I was on that ship but definitely at that time the players didn’t seem to struggle with writing to that level tech (not that I’m saying they’re struggling now! I just haven’t read the ship for a long time)

2. On TOS not being as popular as some of the other versions of Trek, it could also be argued that Abrahms-Trek isn’t all that popular in certain circles (not that I’m trying to re-open that debate, lol!), but the Chernov still seems to be a success and gets enough players to keep it running.

Just my two pence on it!

• Sharon

Daniel brings up a good point, and I feel that I can respond to it by saying this project is something I’ve wanted to do for several years. I’m prepared to commit to it quite seriously. That being said, we do have a charter written up, and the DH spots covered.

-Dave Eads

I grew up with TOS. I’d like to see this happen!!!

Terry

In general, I want to gently remind people that it’s more productive to enter discussions in Command with the mindset of “what would benefit the club as a whole” and not “what would Ilike.” :)

It seems like there’s enough interest that it would be interesting to see the charter that you have written up, Dave.

Sarah, VP